


Two is Not Always Better

by Runic



Series: Prompt Fills [20]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, Prompt Fic, Two Shot, two Tonys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-05 07:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/720596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runic/pseuds/Runic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He is Tony Stark. He shouldn't have to deal with...Tony Stark.</p><p>Is this how Pepper feels?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: frostiron, AU!Tony (or Loki,) which is romantically involved with Loki/tony, crashes into the avengers’ tower one day by accident, he stays a few days since he has to figure out how to go back and either 1) the other AU!partner turns up to bring him back and meet the avengers happens or 2) the AU!Tony/Loki actually surprisingly meets Loki while the others are there. Hilarity ensues. :D
> 
> For Mara.

Tony woke with a strange pressure on his chest. His eyes immediately snapped open, worried that someone was attempting to steal the arc reactor. Why hadn’t JARVIS warned him? What he did not expect, not that he really knew what he was expecting in the first place, was himself staring back at him.

He, well not he, the other Tony, blinked. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Tony returned slowly.

“Well, that was a miscalculation on my part.”

“Yeah, well would you mind getting off me? You’re heavy.”

“You’re heavy!” the other Tony shot back.

“We’re the same person…maybe? You might be a shape shifter for all I know.”

“As far as my sensors can tell he is you, sir,” JARVIS chimed in.

Tony had put security measures in place against mutants and magic, so Tony was going with insanity, parallel Tony, or you know, insanity was a pretty good choice.

“Ah, ah, ah,” the other Tony shook his finger at Tony, an almost evil smirk on his face. “We may both be Anthony Stark, but we are not the same.”

Tony grimaced. “Please tell me you don’t actually use your full name.”

“You don’t?”

Tony sighed dramatically and walked toward the bar. He really, really needed a drink right now. “At least that’ll make it easier to tell us apart. I take it you’re staying until you figure out how to get back?”

“Bingo.”

“Bingo?”

“What’s wrong with bingo?”

“I can’t believe there’s a version of me out there that’s lame.” Tony poured two glasses of scotch. He really wanted this to be some weird dream, so he was going to treat it as such until he woke up. He really needed to wake up.

“Oh how little you know, other me.” There was that evil smirk again. It was freaky seeing that look on his face. Okay, not his exactly. There was more grey in the other’s hair, a darker look in his eyes, and most importantly, he’d grown his beard out fuller. It wasn’t that bad of a look.

“Right.” Tony drained the glass. “I’m going back to bed.”

Anthony downed his own glass in one go, then followed Tony back to bed, crawling in after him. Yeah, this was a really weird dream.

/

But of course it wasn’t a dream, and when Tony woke again Anthony was still there. “Fuck.”

“Good morning to you too.” Anthony stretched, showing off Tony’s own body to…Tony (that was just really freaking weird), and he was a nice piece of ass, if he did say so himself. Not that he was going to say that out loud. Tony tried not to focus on the fact that there was no arc reactor in Anthony’s chest, and not to wander what choices he had made in his life to avoid what had happened in that cave in Afghanistan.

He got the feeling Anthony had a bit of an attitude problem. (Tony was in no way a hypocrite. What are you talking about?)

“So what’s the plan?” Tony asked, going to find a pair of sweats.

“Tests, experiments, the works.” Anthony watched Tony with a little more interest than Tony was comfortable with.

“What makes you think I’ll give you access to my lab?”

“What makes you think you can keep me out?”

Tony was less than impressed, but Anthony was right…for the moment. As he was programmed now JARVIS would listen to the parallel Tony just as much as Tony. He was going to have to do something about that.

“Don’t be like that,” Anthony pouted. “Come on, I’m hungry. Feed me.”

Tony went to his closet and pulled out another pair of sweats and a T-shirt, hitting Anthony in the face when he threw them. “Get dressed and we’ll go down.”

Anthony stuck his tongue out. “Prude.”

“Oh how little you know of me,” Tony countered. If Anthony had been another Tony maybe he wouldn’t have bothered Tony so much, might have even been fun. But he was right, they weren’t the same. There were things that made Anthony different, and it put Tony on edge.

/

“Why are there two of you?”

Tony was always annoyed at how awake Clint was in the morning, but then again birds did wake up at ungodly o’clock in the morning. “Parallel universe,” Tony answered.

Anthony ignored them, heading straight for the coffee machine. “I love you, baby. I’ll never leave you again.”

“Hey! Get your paws off my machine! You can be all grabby-grabby with your own when we get you back.” He half shoved Anthony out of the way so he could pour his own cup of coffee. “What?” he snapped when he caught sight of Clint’s grin.

“Karma,” Clint answered. The archer then slipped off the bar stool, happily munching on a muffin as he left.

…Whatever that was supposed to mean.

“Tony?” Bruce, Steve, and Thor had come on the scene, all three staring at the two Tonys. “A little explanation please.”

“Parallel universe,” Tony repeated his answer from earlier.

“That’s not much of an answer.” Natasha was suddenly sitting on Clint’s abandoned stool. One of these days Tony was going to figure out how she did that.

Behind him Anthony took in a sharp breath. When Tony looked back his copy’s eyes were locked sharply on Natasha, as if he could not quite believe what he was seeing. Anthony slowly moved until he stood in front of her. “Don’t’ stab me, but I’m going to hug you.” And he did. Anthony reached out and wrapped his arms around Natasha, who actually looked slightly surprised at the development. Eventually she awkwardly patted his back and Anthony moved away with a deep sigh. “Sorry, it’s just…”

Natasha nodded, showing she understood. Tony could guess what ‘it’s just…’ was, but he had absolutely no desire to think about it.

A cough from the entryway drew everyone’s attention to Clint, who had come back for another muffin only to see Anthony hugging Natasha, but had not been close enough to hear anything that had been said.

“Don’t lose your head, bird boy. I’m already spoken for.” Anthony lifted his hand, waving his fingers. Tony stared in horror at the ring there.

“You’re married? To who?”

“Whom,” Anthony countered. “The god of truth, Loki.”

Tony was pretty sure his brain had just overloaded. For the first time in his life he couldn’t think. There were just so many things in that sentence that were wrong.

Apparently everyone else’s brains were able to latch onto one thing, although no one latched onto the same thing.

“Loki?”

“I can’t believe you’re married.”

“God of truth?”

“What of my brother? He is on the side of good?”

Through all the shouting Tony managed to gather that Loki, as Odin’s spymaster, had come to Fury and helped gather the Avengers when he found out Thanos was headed for Earth. Anthony had liked the god’s sass, and the night before the big fight he’d found Loki in his bed. (“If you ever have a chance to sleep with Loki, take it.” At which point Steve had to escort Clint out of the kitchen, and Anthony grinned as Thor shouted at him about defiling his baby brother.) Queue survival, celebration sex, more sex, feelings, and a drunken excursion to Vanaheim where they had woken up with epic hangovers and rings on their fingers.

After Clint left the shouting all came from Thor. While he had grown used to Thor’s loud voice, Tony noticed Bruce was starting to look a little stressed. “Lab time?” he whispered to the scientist.

“Please.”

“Hey, crazy, let’s go figure out how to put you back,” Tony called, already leading the way to the lab.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Anthony said, bringing his coffee along with him, “I am being summoned.”

/

“So what’s with the mini arc reactor in your chest?”

Tony didn’t even bother looking away from the computer. “Did you finish writing up those research notes yet?”

“Multitasking. So, glowing light in chest, go.”

Tony remained silent, but Anthony wasn’t one to lose interest so easily. “JARVIS, bubby, how’d the other me get the arc reactor implanted in his chest?”

“Sir was kidnapped by terrorists in Afghanistan, during which shrapnel shards were lodged near his heart,” the A.I. answered.

“JARVIS!” Tony shouted, the A.I. cutting itself off at his shout.

But the damage was done. “So, the arc reactor acts like a magnet keeping the shrapnel from your heart.”

“That’s about the gist of it,” Tony practically growled out. He continued typing, hitting the keys harder than necessary.

“There’s more to the story than that.”

Click. Click. Slam.

“I did tell you about my relationship with Loki. It’s only fair you share some.”

“That’s not a horrible memory for you. Completely different.”

“Fine. I’ll just make up my own story about what happened.” Anthony leaned back in his chair, abandoning the StarkPad Tony had given him, upon which Anthony was supposed to be recreating the experiment that brought him back in the first place. “Let’s see, you were injured and kidnapped, so you would have needed someone to help you before you could have built the arc reactor. Ah,” Anthony had seen the muscles in Tony’s jaw tighten, “a friend then. Well, not then, but he became a friend, helped you build that, and guessing from your reaction, I’m going to say he didn’t make it out.”

That was the finally straw. Tony snapped. “No, he didn’t. He died so I could make it out. He helped me build the arc reactor, and the first Iron Man suit. And then made sure I got out. I came home, and Yinsen didn’t.”

Anthony stayed silent as Tony stared at him, breathing hard as he attempted to reign in his temper. “And when you came home?”

Tony couldn’t help it, he was angry and everything he had been so angry about for so long was coming to the surface. The pressure had been turned up, and if Tony didn’t find a release he was going to blow. “When I came home I found out the man I had looked up to for years was dealing under the table, sending my weapons to the enemy. He ripped the arc reactor from my chest, used it to power his duplicated suit, and nearly killed Pepper.”

“Who was he?” Anthony asked.

Tony’s jaw unclenched enough to spit out, “Stane.”

“Stane?” Anthony sat forward in his chair, suddenly angry. “You gave Stane enough power to deal under the table? How could you be so stupid?”

“He was like a father to me!” Tony shot back. “I trusted him!”

“He killed Dad!” Anthony shouted back. “That wasn’t a car accident they died in, Stane had the brakes cut!”

Tony didn’t respond. After Stane’s betrayal he had begun to look back, to suspect things. “Why didn’t you get rid of him then?”

“Didn’t have enough proof.” This time Anthony was the one being snappy. “But we set him up later, and like the greedy bastard he was, he showed his true colors.”

“Uh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” The two Tonys looked up at Bruce, who until now had been working in his own lab. “Tony, I’ve got the readings from the energy signature last night. It actually doesn’t look like it will be all that difficult to replicate.”

“Except we need magic.”

“What?” Tony turned to Anthony, wondering how he’d be tried if he strangled himself.

“Loki was helping me with the experiment. We need magic if we want to recreate it properly.”

“You couldn’t have told us this sooner?”

“Nope.”

“Hang on,” Bruce interrupted, “are you saying we’ll need our Loki in order to send you back?”

“Bingo, Brucie.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long, Mara! I hope you enjoy it!

His eye wasn’t twitching, but it was a pretty damn near thing. Loki had luckily (or unluckily, depending on how one chose to look at it) attacked not long after Anthony had told them they would need the Trickster. Loki had pouted when his “playthings” had not turned out to be as playful as they usually were. When he had demanded to know what was going on Tony had told him flat out, which had lead them to where they were now, with Loki leaning against his spear, his form shaking with silent laughter.

“And why, my dear Man of Iron, would I help you?” Loki asked when he regained his breath.

“’Cause I’m your favorite Avenger.”

“That is rather presumptuous of you.”

“Aye!” Thor shouted, still battling one of the statues Loki had enchanted. “I am my brother’s favorite Avenger!”

_‘Not helping, Thor.’_

Loki rolled his eyes dramatically. “You are not my favorite anything.”

Ouch. Point break was going to pout all night over that. “I’d owe you one.” He knew it was a dangerous proposition, but he needed to get rid of Anthony…preferably before he strangled the man.

Loki’s eyes practically sparkled with mischief at the prospects. His eyes raked up and down Tony’s body, and Tony could swear the god was checking him out. That was rather…exciting. “No,” Loki said after a moment.

Tony failed completely at covering his shock. “What? _Why?”_

“I like to watch you squirm.” And with that he was gone, and Tony was swearing loudly.

/

The one thing Tony liked about Anthony was that the man knew his scotch. Other than that he’d pretty much come to despise the man since the beginning of his stay three days ago. Of course that meant he also didn’t trust the guy, and since he hadn’t been able to reprogram JARVIS, Tony had to spend all of his free time watching his counterpart.

“Your Loki is an ass,” Anthony said as Tony handed him a drink. They were back in Tony’s lab, going over Anthony’s research notes to see if there was a way to recreate the experiment without the god’s magic.

“Yours isn’t?”

“Well yeah, but he’s kind of more subtle about it,” Anthony answered.

“That’s when you know you’re in trouble with ours.”

Anthony made a thoughtful noise, but otherwise remained silent.

“You miss him?” Tony asked after about fifteen minutes of silence, the longest the two had gone without yelling at one another.

“Of course. There’s a reason I married him. Have you never thought of being with your Loki?”

“Sexually, yes. Relationship wise, no.”

Anthony shook his head and downed the rest of his glass. “It’s just strange to me that I wouldn’t be with him in any universe.”

The intensity of Anthony’s feelings came through all too clearly, and it scared Tony. Yeah, he admitted it, it terrified him that he had the ability to care that deeply for anyone, all right? “I just don’t do relationships.”

“Of course not,” Anthony snapped back, contempt heavy in his voice.

“Sirs,” JARVIS interrupted, “there appears to be an intense fluxuation in energy in the lab. It is similar to when Sir Anthony arrived.”

As the A.I. had been speaking a giant rip formed in the middle of the lab, tearing open space itself. “They must be recreating the experiment from my side.” It was fascinating, but if it ended up being yet another version of himself, and not someone to take Anthony home, Tony was going to start screaming. He might even cry.

There was no noise when the rip finally opened. One moment it was there, the next Tony was staring at Anthony making out passionately with Loki (his Loki, not Tony’s Loki). This Loki had shorter hair, hell he was shorter, maybe only half an inch taller than Anthony. When they broke apart and Loki’s eyes found Tony, Tony thought he looked more innocent and less insane than his counterpart. He seemed happy. Tony liked that look.

“There are two of you,” Loki pointed out. His voice was wrong. There was no danger, no hint that excited Tony and put him on edge. Mischief yes, danger no.

Anthony nuzzled against Loki’s neck, one hand on the back of the god’s neck, the other on Loki’s ass, pressing him close. He mumbled something that Tony couldn’t hear, but whatever it was had Loki making a sympathetic noise and running his fingers through Anthony’s hair.

“Great, you’re here. Take him back,” Tony demanded.

Loki glared at them for interrupting their moment. “I cannot.”

“Why not?” Tony asked, barely constrained hostility in his voice.

“It takes a great deal of energy to travel between universes. I must rest before we can return. It is the same reason it took me so long to come for Anthony in the first place. The only way we will be returning sooner is if my counterpart is willing to help.”

“JARVIS will show you to your room, won’t you, Jar?”

“Of course, sir.”

Anthony left the lab with Loki, his arm still around the god’s waist. When he was finally alone Tony let out a sigh of relief. Only a little while longer and he’d be rid of his unwelcome guests.

/

Tony was not amused when Anthony ordered JARVIS to connect him to the lab so Tony could hear the enthusiastic sex he was having with Loki. Nor was he amused when he finally made it to his own room only to find it occupied by the Trickster god. Tony gave Loki a blank look before walking over to his bed and flopping down on his stomach.

His only indication that Loki had moved was when the bed dipped under the god’s weight. “That was not very welcoming of you.”

“Hey, I just had to listen to us having sex without getting to participate. Give me a break,” Tony complained into the sheets. He should probably be doing something about the fact that the Trickster was in his room, like calling the rest of the Avengers, but Tony just didn’t have the energy for it, not when it seemed like Loki was not here to fight.

Loki laid down beside Tony. He did not answer until the inventor turned his head to look at him. “Would you like to?”

Tony blinked, and then blinked again. Of course he wanted to, but Loki was the enemy. He absolutely should not be sleeping with the enemy. And okay, where the hell had this come from? “What?” That was apparently his word of the day.

Loki rolled his eyes, a knot in Tony’s stomach coming undone that had unknowingly formed there when he had seen the other Loki. There was the Trickster he was used to. “Sex, Stark, with me. I would have thought you of all people would be familiar with the concept.”

“Well, yeah, but why now? And why are you coming to me for your late night booty call?”

Loki’s hand found its way to Tony’s cheek, his face suddenly very close to Tony’s. He could feel Loki’s breath against his lips. “You were right today. You are my favorite Avenger.”

Tony grinned, but when he opened his mouth to respond he found it occupied with Loki’s lips. Well that was okay, he could go without getting one witty comment in. Besides, he really didn’t want Loki to stop kissing him. The god was a fantastic kisser, and Tony didn’t mean he was good, he meant _fan-fucking-tastic._

Loki didn’t break the kiss, not even when he rolled them so that he was pressed between Tony and the soft mattress. Well, Anthony had said if he had an opportunity to sleep with Loki he should take it.

/

Loki was still in bed with him when Tony woke up. The other Loki was there as well, why Tony had no idea, wearing an all too smug look. But that look wasn’t Loki’s, it wasn’t his Loki’s, and therefore he hated it.

“What do you want?”

“From you? Nothing,” the other Loki’s eyes briefly flickered to him before returning to Loki. The two were not outright glaring at each other, but they didn’t look happy to be in one another’s presence. It was rather obvious there was no love lost between the two. “Bored of waiting for me, were you?”

“If I had wanted to speak with you I would have simply pulled your _husband,”_ Loki sounded like he had almost choked on the word, “off of you.”

“So you chose to fuck my husband’s counterpart instead? Or rather you let him fuck you.” There was a subtle something in those words that had both Tony and Loki ready to pounce. Well, Loki actually looked like he was about to murder his other self. “You should know better than to lie to the god of truth… _Jotun_.”

The other Loki was suddenly slammed onto his back by a blast of raw magic. “You are a true son of Odin then?” Loki growled out. He had moved from the bed so fast Tony hadn’t even realized it until the Trickster spoke.

“Uh, Loki?”

But Loki ignored him and continued to advance on the Aesir. “How very lucky for you.”

“Jealous, monster?”

“Hey!” Tony shouted, throwing the covers off and joining his Loki. “I don’t know what these Jotuns are, nor do I really care. Loki being one does not make him a monster. Sure, he’s not the nicest guy around, and he regularly destroys parts of the city, but he’s not a monster. More of an annoyance-“

“Stark,” his Loki said sharply, cutting off his rant.

“Right. Anyways, my point, the only reason you are Anthony are still here is because that means you’ll be leaving that much sooner. I thought I hated myself, but you two have made me realize I’m not really all that bad.”

“You think yourself better than us?” the other Loki growled, finally standing.

“Hell yes. Now get out.”

Tony didn’t exactly like the look the other Loki gave them, as if there was some hint of recognition, and whatever he was recognizing Tony didn’t want to know, but he finally turned on his heel and walked out. He let out a sigh of relief when the door closed behind him. “I’m going to be so happy when they leave. You sure you can’t send them back now?”

“At this point they would not trust me to get them back safely, and with good reason.”

Tony whined, but Loki did not acknowledge the noise. The Trickster had been staring at the door, but now he turned his gaze back to Tony. “You defended me.”

“Well yeah, I mean, he was being an ass.”

Tony had no idea what Loki’s reaction to that would be, and the silence did not make it easier to handle. What he was not expecting when Loki opened his mouth was to hear, “I wish to ride you.”

The inventor blinked and then grinned at the god. “Careful, Dasher, I might start to like you.”

Loki pushed him back until his knees hit the back of the bed and he fell back. The next second Loki was straddling his hips and looking smug. “I think you already do.”

/

Loki left as soon as they were done, leaving Tony to two and a half grueling days of watching their counterparts being all cute. It was disgusting. It didn’t help that Loki, Anthony’s Loki, had started a fight with Thor, which while not that much different from a usual fight with Loki, was about his Loki, and it was just confusing. By the end of it Tony had a headache, there was a huge thunderstorm, and Anthony and Loki had wandered off to have sex again. Tony dealt with the whole situation by being just not drunk enough to function.

But eventually Loki deemed himself recovered sufficiently to make the return trip. Tony nearly cried in relief. He, Bruce, Anthony, and even Loki when he wasn’t being a dick, recreated Anthony’s experiment. There actually wasn’t that much to do. Most of the work had already been done after Loki passed through his own portal. It seemed all too soon the pieces were in place…and not soon enough.

“Well,” Anthony said, holding his hand out for Tony to shake, “I can’t say it’s been exactly pleasant, but thank you.”

Tony covered his shock well and took Anthony’s hand. No point in being rude when the man was about to leave. “Couldn’t leave myself hanging now, could I?”

Anthony gave a sort of half chuckle. Loki sidled up behind him. “Perhaps we will return for dinner at some point.”

“Please don’t. Although if you are ever in the neighborhood again stop by for a drink.” Tony and Bruce traded grins at the inside joke, while Anthony and Loki just shook their heads. “All right, boys and girls, let’s get this show on the road!” Tony shouted, clapping his hands together.

The machines started up, building energy. Loki began to weave his spell, and Tony was spellbound. He had only even seen his Loki use magic in battle. Dodging fireballs really wasn’t the best time to conduct an in-depth study. It was fascinating. It was as if Loki had reached into the energies of the universe itself and was bending them to his will.

Beside his Anthony elbowed him, knocking Tony out of his trance. “That’s the same look I had on my face when I first saw it.”

“If you are good maybe the Trickster will perform for you.” Loki shot Tony a smirk, and oh, the naughty things implied there. It seemed to Tony Loki was implying that as much as he didn’t like his counterpart, he liked the idea of being separated from any version of Tony even less.

Then the spell was complete, and science combined with magic. The genius in Tony was having a field day. It was beautiful. With a mock salute Anthony and Loki stepped through the rip that had formed. Space wove itself back together as soon as they had passed, leaving the lab the same as it had been before they’d appeared.

“Well,” Bruce took his glasses off, still staring at the spot where they had been, “that’s the end of that.”

“Yeah. Everything’s back to normal now.” Except that he was now sleeping with SHIELD’s most wanted super villain.

Bruce chuckled. “As normal as it gets for us anyways.”

/

“Can you do some magic?”

An elegantly curved eyebrow shot up. “Do you realize what you are asking?”

“Not anything destructive. I just want to see it,” Tony clarified.

Loki studied the mortal for a long moment before he moved forward, crawling cat like up the bed toward Tony. He dropped down to place kisses against Tony’s ankles, knees, and stomach. It felt like fire was washing over him. It was hot, consuming, wonderful, and Tony wanted more.

“I have always found practical demonstrations leave the most lasting impressions.”


End file.
